Evolution in Lafourche? Why not?

This headline we used on a story filled my mind with the best possibilities: “Public can discuss evolution of Lafourche Parish.”“How should the parish evolve?” I asked myself.

Michael GormanEditorial Page Editor

This headline we used on a story filled my mind with the best possibilities: “Public can discuss evolution of Lafourche Parish.”“How should the parish evolve?” I asked myself.I was adrift on a stream of lovely ideas to haul us into the 20th, if not yet the 21st, century. But it was not to last.I read only a short way into the story and learned that the theme of an upcoming public meeting is not so much our collective evolution but the development of a master plan.You know what a master plan is, right?It’s the sort of thing local bureaucrats and politicians generally set about with great purpose and public effort only to shelve it when it offers pearls of wisdom on how future development should take place rather than telling our officials to continue with their own decades-old haphazard “plans.”Before I learned the true nature of the challenge, though, I had already gotten onto a train of thought that took me to all sorts of utopian places where we might find ourselves with some true evolution.So here goes:1. Elect Parish Council members who embrace the notion of living in a parish rather than just one tiny corner of it.If we can actually do this, our leaders won’t so much identify themselves as residents of and fighters for Leeville, Golden Meadow, Lockport, Thibodaux or Chackbay. Instead, they could see themselves as doing the business of the parish.We have seen less of the ugly parochialism of the past in recent years, but it still rears its ugly head from time to time, reminding us of the lingering petty jealousies and hatreds that can hold back progress for all of us.2. Elect parish presidents who will work for the parish and not just themselves.This is a simple one and one that could pay immediate dividends. If we were to elect a parish president who, for instance, would embrace the notion of building codes and actually try to enforce them — for everyone, not just the people who don’t happen to be political contributors — we might end up with homes and businesses that can withstand serious storms.If, one day in the future, we have a building-code official who wants to enforce the building codes, let him or her do so. Don’t intercede on behalf of your well-connected benefactors.3. Stop allowing public officials to play on our lack of knowledge.When it became clear that the Parish Council didn’t have the votes it would take to remove a parish administrator from office through the proper channels, several councilmen led an effort to have voters do their dirty work.We graciously complied.That was and is wrong. Councilman Jerry Jones got enough of his colleagues to support a scurrilous measure imposing residency requirements on the administrator’s position that he got it placed on the parishwide ballot.Voters saw the requirement that parish administrators live in Lafourche Parish and voted in favor of it, not knowing or not caring that passing the measure essentially stripped the administrator of her job by changing the job requirements after she had been in that job for years.We should know better, and we must demand better of our public officials — even the ones so motivated by personal vendettas that they will place all considerations of right and wrong behind them.I know this sounds like a lot, but each one on its own is a fairly meager request.Sure, Parish Council members must keep their constituents happy. They have to represent the interests of their local communities. But they don’t have to do so to the exclusion of the rest of the parish.Our parish presidents don’t have to be completely oblivious to the needs of their supporters. But they might keep in mind that playing fast and loose with the rules works to everyone’s detriment — including their own.And a commitment to working for the greater good might be too much to require of our council members. But we can still hope, can’t we?The process leading up to a master plan is important, even if that plan is eventually ignored, as I suspect this one will be. How nice would it be, though, if we could actually evolve?

Editorial Page Editor Michael Gorman can be reached at 448-7612 or by e-mail at mike.gorman@dailycomet.com.